ISO
AGBICULTUBE OX THE BHINE.
separate according to the taste of the grower. After
fermentation the red wine is kept till March when it is
drawn off into fresh casks. White wine is drawn off
somewhat later.
The white wine made of the Orleans grape at Riidcs-
heim is more fiery in its nature than the riesling vine,
which is mild. Both are equally well flavoured when
the grapes have attained perfection, and then the grapes
are also a delicious table fruit. Rudcsheim is one of the
places to which patients resort who are recommended by
physicians to take a course of grapes. This pleasant
medicine is somewhat expensive, the grapes being valued
at ‰7. or 9α,. per pound in the vineyard, while the pre-
scription runs for several pounds in the day. Weak
stomachs are soon regenerated by this course. The fine
Orleans and riesling grapes ripen too late to be used in
this manner ; and earlier kinds, all of which are of inferior
flavour, are substituted for them, such as the Kleinberg,
and a delicate kind of green grape termed “ gutedcl.”
The muscatel grape, called on the Rhine “ traminer,”
notwithstanding its luscious flavour, does not equal the
riesling when the latter is fully ripe ; and, although the
small w ine growers are fond of introducing the traminer
into their vineyards, yet it is not used anywhere in the
Rhinegau for the fine wines. The Riidesheim is one of
the high-priced growths, and is sold of fine quality at 907.
to 100/. per pipe by the growers. A choice wine is now
constantly made in all the best sites by the larger growers,
who cause the grapes that first attain perfection to be
gathered separately. The winzers go for this task armed
with a thin sharp iron resembling a packing-needle and
pick the ripest grapes off the sunny side of the branches.
AGRICULTURE OX THE RUINE.
191
ʌ pipe of wine so made is called “ Auslcse,” and sells
sometimes for 400Z. and 500Z.
Adjoining Rddesheim lies Geisenheim, which is con-
spicuous from far by the neat Gothic towers that have been
recently added to its old church, which is well worth
visiting. The Taunus summits recede here from the
river's bank, and the alluvial intervening soil at their foot
obtains some breadth. The choice site at Geisenheim is
the “ Rothenberg,” on the fall of one of the undulating
projections which slopes somewhat steeply towards the
village, forming an angle of 20 degrees with great depth
of soil. The Duke of Nassau, Count Ingelheim, Baron
Zemierlein, M. Dresel, a wine-merchant, and M.Gergens,
are the principal proprietors of the southern aspect of the
slope, where the rood of land (-1lδ of a morgen) formerly
sold for 80 and 90 florins (16007. and 1800Z. per acre).
The value of these sites has considerably declined of late
years ; and a few years back some land in a favourite site
at Riidesheim was purchased by the Duke of Nassau at the
rate of 6000 florins per morgen, or 800Z. per acre. In Gei-
senheim the traveller can see at M. Gergens,, or at Dresel
and Co.’s, the arrangement of a private cellar, and form
some idea of the capital required to grow and manage
these fine wines. The houses seldom afford any idea of
the extent of subterraneous space devoted to the wine.
Several vaults from 80 to 200 feet in length, and broad
enough to admit of two rows of double pipe casks to lie
on each side and leave a convenient passage in the middle,
are a common appendage to a very unpretending domicile.
So much money is made by keeping the wine to the
proper moment for selling it, that the grower becomes
naturally a wholesale wine-merchant. He, however, is